CCH Releases Tax Briefing on IRS Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

CCH has issued a new tax briefing to provide guidance and analysis of the Internal Revenue Service’s announcement that all same-sex marriages nationwide will be recognized for federal tax purposes.

The IRS and the Treasury Department ruled last week that same-sex couples who are legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages would be treated as married for federal tax purposes (see Treasury and IRS Recognize Same-Sex Marriages for Tax Purposes). CCH’s new Tax Briefing: IRS Guidance on Same-Sex Marriage discusses how the IRS has responded to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.

The IRS will now accept a married tax filing status for federal returns filed by legally married, same-sex couples, whether the couple lives in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or not. In addition to income taxes, estate and gift taxes and payroll taxes associated with many employee spousal benefits are also affected by the DOMA decision and new IRS announcement. However, the actions do not apply to registered domestic partnerships, civil unions, or similar formal relationships recognized under state laws.

“The IRS said it followed other federal agencies by taking a ‘place of celebration’ approach rather than using a couple’s ‘place of domicile’ to determine tax status,” said CCH principal federal tax analyst Mark Luscombe in a statement. “Now same-sex married couples may file as married filing jointly or married filing separately for the 2013 tax year, and couples may look at amending federal returns from open prior years to see if they may benefit from their new tax filing status.”

CCH’s new tax briefing on the IRS guidance on same-sex marriage is available here. Other recent CCH Tax Briefings on significant tax developments, including Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA, which was published shortly after the High Court’s decision in June, is also available by visiting www.CCHGroup.com/Legislation.

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